1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to a medical apparatus for insertion in the trachea for treatment of breathing ailments of humans and particularly for the treatment of infants.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Objectives of the Invention
Oftentimes during the treatment of human patients medical personnel come into contact with the body fluids of the patients. While sometimes this is not harmful, with the recent rise and rapid spread of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) virus, such contact may be fatal. Thus, many procedures which have conventionally been employed must now be changed in an effort to protect doctors, nurses and other medical professionals and technicians during patient treatment to prevent such exposure and contact.
A common procedure for newborn infants with respiratory complications includes the removal of meconium contaminated amniotic fluid from the infant's trachea by employing a endotracheal tube. A conventional procedure has been to insert the endotracheal tube through the mouth of the infant, advance the tube into the trachea and thereafter by applying mouth suction to the end of the tube meconium contaminated amniotic fluid can be removed from the trachea which prevents the infant from suffering serious damage to his lungs due to meconium contaminated fluid which is very corrosive to the lung tissue. Sometimes during this procedure the medical personnel inadvertently receives a small amount of the withdrawn liquid into his mouth. With the spread of certain virus such as hepatitis B or AIDS, such contact can prove deadly and in order to avoid this, mechanical aspirators have been attached recently to endotracheal devices which apply a mechanical suction controlled by thumb movement over a suitably positioned aperture in the suction line. However, mechanical aspirators are oftentimes not suitably controllable which can result in damage to the internal tissues or organs of the infant and it has been found that some medical personnel or operators prefer to control the suction force by using mouth suction instead of the mechanical devices. Furthermore mechanical aspirators are dependent on availability of a vaccuum suction line. Even if a suction line is available it has to be in working condition and the mechanical suction device has to be properly placed into the suction line. All this takes time and very often delivery of an infant with meconium contaminated amniotic fluid is an emergency situation without prior notice and suction of the trachea must be provided with great speed prior to an infant taking his first breath and there is not time left to prepare the mechanical suction device in working order.
In view of the danger of using conventional mouth suction devices the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to provide an endotracheal device which is safe for use both to the infant and to the medical operator.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide an endotracheal device which prevents withdrawn liquids from entering the mouth of the operator.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide an endotracheal device which is available for use immediately during emergencies and does not require time consuming preparatory steps prior to its use.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide an endotracheal device which is relatively easy to learn to operate accurately and which is inexpensive to manufacture.
It is still yet another objective of the present invention to provide an endotracheal device in which the withdrawn liquid can be easily seen, measured and stored.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed explanation is presented below.